Episode 28 - AMA with John Abdou USA Water Polo's Chief High Performance Officer

Off the Deck

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John Abdou on Twitter

1

What do you feel are the biggest hurdles for growing the sport at the collegiate level nationwide (D1, D2, D3)? What advice would you give college ADs (and other leaders) that would maybe help them consider adding a mens/womens program

2

How do we break down socio economic barriers to entry for our sport, both for athletes and for coaches

3

Where do you see the growth of wp in a diversity stand point in term of high level competitiveness?

How can we get more competitiveness in more diverse regions?

4

Given that your position requires you to wear a lot of hats, what does success look like to you? (i.e. is it about more schools adding water polo, is it about having more athletes like Ashleigh Johnson from FL or Max Irving as an athlete of color be a norm vs outlier, etc.)

5

Do you see more colleges like Sonoma State who have a program or may be considering adding a program dropping water polo in the future due to COVID or any other reasons?

6

How would you like to see coaches improve themselves with this downtime? What can coaches be doing better? Has USAWP thought about a coach credentialing system, like the Azevedos talk about?

7

I know you have talked about young coaches venturing out on their own across the country to find college jobs; talk to us about the inner struggle you had to decide to move from CA to the east coast, the struggles you went thru and how you think it made you better as a not just a coach but a human

8

You’ve seen a lot of teams the last couple months online…What’s the best quarantine home workout you’ve seen? Best virtual team bonding activity? Best shared video practice idea?

9

What are a few things you wish coaches would take more time to focus on with athletes under the age of 15?

10

Have you been working with schools in Texas at all to help develop the community more now that they sanctioned water polo as a sport

11

Do you see any changes in our game given some of the new covid guidelines? What ways can we show that water polo will be successful in the “new normal” (i.e.: social distancing)

12

Do you think the league should adopt the US Major sports model, closely mimic the European club model, or a hybrid of the two? How do you anticipate involving inter scholastic athletics for developing player?

13

How important is it to develop homegrown players for professional team or would a draft work best? Or a hybrid of the two similar to MLS

14

How do you think the our 10/12 Modified Rules help or hinder the development of the mobile athletes you are looking for the clubs to develop?

15

Any book recommendations?